BC Hydro investigating after 2 power outages in 2 days in South Surrey

Nearly 10,000 BC Hydro customers were left briefly in the dark late Sunday morning after the second issue at a substation in South Surrey in as many days.

Veronica de Pasquali lives near the substation at 152 Street and 32 Avenue. She told CTV News she heard two loud booms from the facility on Sunday morning, shortly before noon.

"I immediately called my husband to tell him to park outside and not go to our underground parking as the gates have to reset," she said in a message on Twitter.

Sunday's outage lasted only a few minutes in de Pasquali's building, though other customers in South Surrey and White Rock were without power for more than an hour.

The incident happened less than 24 hours after another outage on Saturday. That one knocked out de Pasquali's power for just 15 minutes, but the fact that they came on back to back days makes her nervous.

"I hope it doesn't keep happening," she said. "I am on crutches and it would really be a bummer to be stuck in the elevator or in the underground parking and have to hike up to my apartment."

BC Hydro tweeted advisories about both outages. Each time, initial reports showed at least 10,000 customers without power.

Within minutes, however, electricity was restored to many of the affected customers. By 2:30 on Saturday, the number of customers affected by the first outage had been reduced to just 1,300.

BC Hydro spokesperson Geoff Hastings told CTV News it's unclear whether the two outages in two days are related. Crews are still working to determine what caused Saturday's incident, he said.

"The cause of that one is still under investigation as well," he said. "It could just be a coincidence."

Crews are continuing to investigate both outages, Hastings said.